On December 12, 1958, at the height of the Cold War, an article in a West Virginia newspaper stated that the "Chesapeake and Ohio Railway announced plans today for the construction of an Exhibit Hall adjacent to the auditorium of the Greenbrier hotel. The cost of the project was not disclosed." Little did readers of the newspaper article know that the announcement signaled the start of thirty-five years of deception and intrigue deep in the mountains of West Virginia.